The Employment Situation: May 2001 — 2001-06-01

Nonfarm employment and the unemployment rate were little changed in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Manufacturing had another large job loss, which was mostly offset by employment gains in other industries, including services, construction, and finance, insurance, and real estate. Both the number of unemployed persons (6.2 million) and the unemployment rate (4.4 percent) were little changed in May. The unemployment rate was half a percentage point higher than its recent low of 3.9 percent in October. The rates for all the major worker groups--adult men (3.9 percent), adult women (3.8 percent), teenagers (13.6 percent), whites (3.8 percent), blacks (8.0 percent), and Hispanics (6.2 percent)--showed little or no change over the month. (See tables A-1 and A-2.) Total employment (135.1 million) edged down in May after seasonal adjustment. The employment-population ratio decreased to 63.9 percent and has fallen by 0.6 percentage point since January.